History of the Scarlet family
by Dusios
Summary: A reporter interrogates the Scarlet family to understand things. First of the reporter series.
1. The Mistress

"What do you know about vampires? Nothing? Preposterous ! In that era, you must know at least a little something about vampires.

Well, I asked for it. That would be ridiculous for me to request you to write down the history of the Scarlet family, only to decide five minutes later that I am too lazy for this.

Let me start already, will you? I don't remember much about my childhood. For me, my true life started when I turned into a full vampire. You may be lost, but I'll explain later. So, my real life started when our parents -Flandre's and mine- got attacked by a vampire. There were screams of pain, of agony, as our parents fell to the beast's talons. Only when it was satisfied with them, it turned its attention to us.

No. It was acting like a beast, so I won't give it a name. It'll be "it" in that story. That being said and hopefully marked down, you might have heard that a vampire bite is painful. Maybe you heard that the pain is excruciating, or something like that. It's a lie. Just like mosquitoes', a vampire sucking your blood doesn't cause pain, even through comparing them is a bit painful to me.

I believe the term commonly used is "vampire's kiss". It suits it perfectly, I know that better than anybody else. Instead of pain, the bite feels like a kiss. However, while the kiss itself doesn't cause any pain, having your blood being sucked out certainly is painful. I believe I blacked out, and when I came back to my sense, I was laying in the middle of the living room, with my dear little sister's dead body next to me. That's when I noticed that I had wings. Small, ridiculous wings. After that, everything became extremely unpleasant. The servants arrived, saw the three dead bodies in the room, and blamed me, the winged monster, for the murder. While I was trying to explain myself, Flandre started shaking and changing. I think that, right now, we all stopped arguing and accusing each other, just to stare at my little sister turning into a monster. First, she lost several teeth, that were quickly replaced by sharp fangs. Second, her back seemed to move and slide, as if two giant leeches were crawling under her skin, and ultimately, her wings came out in an explosion of bloody. Highly unpleasant. When I saw that, I was horrified, and at the same time, relieved that the painful process didn't happen to me while I was awake. Finally, Flandre came back to life, but there was something different. She's always been a sweet girl, and yet, when she started breathing again, she was different.

Hmm, what is it? You want to know about the vampire that attacked us? Never saw it again. Anyway, after Flandre's little episode, we were practically homeless. It wouldn't be long before someone else came to see what was going on, or what the servants were doing, so I decided we should leave the mansion for a few years. Thinking back about it, it was a terrible idea, but back then, I was deeply disturbed by our sudden transformation, so I knew we couldn't pass for normal girls. And the plan was...

It was a really stupid plan. Originally, we were supposed to take some clothes, and go live in a forest for a few days. Until the mansion was abandoned, in fact. That way, as I thought, we wouldn't be moved to an orphanage, and we wouldn't be burned for being vampires. But things didn't go as planned, as a witch came to the mansion. Just when we were supposed to go away, with our bags, she arrived, smiling, and yet holding an open book in her hand, as if she was thinking of killing us. So she barged in, holding her book as if it was a weapon, constantly asking questions and threatening us. It's only when she noticed that she was threatening two young girls that she calmed down a bit. She asked us what happened, I told her we were attacked, she asked if the servants were also killed by the vampire and I lied to her. I tried to protect Flandre by pretending the other vampire did the killing. She started explaining us what vampires were like, what we were supposed to do, stuff like that.

Hmmm? It was weird for a witch to do such a thing? Maybe so. I guess she saw us as possible tools or something. Using a vampire to kill a vampire or something. Following her advice, Flandre and I went to sleep, hidden in the basement that she sealed, using her magic. She promised she would came back and set us free once everything was over, so that we could resume the hunt together.

She lied. She never came back."


	2. A trusty friend playing along

An interview? Is this another one of Remi's whims? Urgh, what a bother.

I accept your, interview, but I want to make it clear : Remi isn't my boss, and she's not ordering me around. Am I clear? Ha, I see you're nodding. All right.

I met Remilia in France. We became friends and had a lot of beautiful children together. Now good bye.

Do not stare at me like that, this is irritating. Fine. It was in 1789, just after I barely escaped the French Revolution. I still had my head on my shoulders, but I lost all my books. I guess they burned them. Anyway, I was completely lost, out of money, and forced to use magic to survive. That is when...

Before the Revolution, magic was just a hobby. I never really had the constitution to do anything serious, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. To be honest, I was a poor witch then. Unable to teleport, or summon a mist or anything fancy. I was just able to start a fire. So anyway, totally lost, I find a castle by pure accident, explore it a bit, find two little girls hidden in a corner, ask them what's wrong, and the biggest one begins telling me that it was fate who led me here. And then she shows the library, and by using all the books she has around, I turn into a real witch, and happy end. Good bye now. Close the door on your way out. If you find my familiar, send her here. And don't come back.


	3. The lost girl

Who are you? Are you here to play? I got a lot of visitors recently, it's a nice change. Back then, when we were still in the old world, Sis wouldn't get a lot of visitors, and most of them would be all like "die monster, you are the hemorrhoid of that cursed world", and once sister started playing with them, they would be like "oh god that hurts, I'm losing all my blood, and it's not supposed to be outside my body".

If she's my sister? Well, of course she's my sister. She was always here for me. Always playing with me when Father and Mother were busy, always hiding in the closet or under my bed when a maid would walk in the room. Sometimes, I tried saying Mother that Sis was in the house, but when she would get mad at me. She would say thing like "crazy", or "hallucinations", or "failure".

No, I don't know what those words mean.

What do you mean, it's a good thing?

Patchouli? Oh, that little girl from the library? She's a little weird, right? Ha, look who's talking. Sometimes I look at her, and I feel like an old woman. And then I look at my sister, and I remember I'm just a little girl. Her little girl.

Do you know how she used to call me? Puddy. That because my name is Flandre, and Sis said that if she shortens it, it sounds like Flan, so she called me Puddy. I remember being annoyed by that.

Father's death?

What do you want to know?

I don't know anything.

No, it...

It wasn't like that.

It was something else. A vampire.

Yes, I am aware that I... I am a vampire. But I'm different. I don't kill. Not intentionally.

No, that's...

That's not what I mean...

That's...

This is cruel...

You're mean, you know that?

NO !

THAT WASN'T SISTER'S FAULT !

**GET OUT, YOU SNOOPING VERMIN ! GET OUT BEFORE I TURN OUT INTO A BLANKET !**


	4. Invisible, trusty old friend

Hello there. Nice to see you weren't kicked out or cooked in.

Hmm? Remilia? You want to know what I think of her?

She tries to hide it, but she's a nice person doing her best to protect her family. Even through in her case, she has a rather vague definition of family. For people like you and me, used to having brothers and sisters, a family is a blood bond, something that you can't choose, something that you can't deny. Even if you disinherit your children, they'll be your children forever. Even if your brother gets himself wounded in a battle because he was an idiot, he's still your brother, so you do your best to help him. For people like us, family is imposed on us, and yet we accept it. Remilia is different, she doesn't have any family, she just brought people from different places, and called them "family".

No, no, no, that's too deep. I'm not trying to analyze her brain or something. I just know her well. I saw her growing up, I saw her accepting what she was, and I saw her turning into an abomination.

What? Oh, you didn't know that? Can we pretend I never said that?

You're not really a nice person, you know that? Asking questions, writing everything in your little book while pretending you're just recording history. Listen to me, that house, this family is barely holding itself together with lies and and made-up stories, but it's still a family I want to protect.

Oh, fine, you really want to know? I was sold to Remilia's father on a slave market in Beijing centuries ago. I could've broke free at any moment, but I wanted to see the world, and live differently. And everything worked perfectly, I was brought back in France, and the Mistress freed me when she understood that her husband bought a woman.

No, she had no problem with me being a slave. She was just afraid I would seduce her husband with my exotic look and my red hair. Poor woman, if she knew... Her husband just wasn't my type.

I served Remilia's parents for years, until Remilia appeared. That was not my brightest moment back then, I remember panicking and running around while screaming "so that's how human are reproducing?"

Hu? Of course I'm not human. Couldn't you figure that already? For a historian, you're not that sharp.

Yes, I said "Remilia's parents".

Why, you ask?

Because, as I told you, they just act like sisters, but Remilia is not Flandre's sister. Remilia was turned into a vampire decades before Flandre.


	5. The little girl forced to be a princess

You again. So that wasn't enough last time, hu? I guess notoriety does require work. Please take note as I will repeat myself again.

What? WHO TOLD YOU THAT?

…

I see, you talked to Flandre.

Yes, you figured it out. Pretty good for a reporter, if I may say.

You can go now. You won.

No. Go away. Now.

What is it? What aren't you leaving already?

You want me to tell my story? You already know it. You already know the true story.

You want to be sure you won't write lies by mistake? He. I'll give you that, you're better than that other reporter, that one with the ears.

All right, I'll tell you the whole story now.

Just as you figured, Flandre isn't my sister. However, if you think I don't deserve that position, you are wrong. You see, while Flandre and I aren't directly related, we're still from the same family.

What? It's confusing? Fine, I'll restart from the beginning.

Hu-hum. So, there's my family. Formerly middle class, now nobles, thanks to the Baron's gratitude for helping him during the war. So we have Mister and Madam Upstart. They're new, they don't really know how to survive in the noble world of politic, but they're smart and rich. So what does Mister Upstart does? First of all, he invents a story justifying his noble status, and pay a genealogist to create a relation to a blue blood family. Once it's done, he starts traveling, looking for some kind of trophies to bring back in France.

Yes. The trophy was Meiling, a Chinese girl. Extremely rare back then. Once they have a trophy and a family proving that they are nobles, they start thinking about their future, and they decide to have a heir. That's where I appear.

Don't interrupt me again, please. However, in the royal court, there is a lord being offended by the special treatment that those obscure middle classes are getting, so, in jealousy, he pays a wizard to get rid of those people, despite the fact they never did anything to him. Meanwhile, I grow up as a lady, being tutored by a governess from England. My parents are ambitious, and they expect me to speak French, Italian and Spanish as well as English. I spent my time in lessons, learning more and more from Knowledge, and yet I know less and less of the outside world.

I don't think I ever climbed a tree, to be honest.

I'm not bitter. Just a bit regretful. Anyway, the wizard's curse finally pay off, and my family is killed, including my parents, most of the domestics, and my little sister. Those who aren't killed are turned into something unholy.

I won't annoy you with details, but to be short, I shut myself in the basement, while those who still could ran away. Yes, Meiling and Knowledge too. The two women that taught me the most made it out alive, I should be grateful now that I think about it. Anyway, since my family is dead and I, the only heir, is nowhere to be found, some distant cousins inherit the mansion.

Yes, those cousins were Flandre's parents. I believe I already told you the rest of the story, but for the sake of your notes, I'll keep narrating. I befriended Flandre, pretending myself to be her sister, but neglecting to check if the curse has been lifted. I understood, a bit too late, that the curse wasn't placed on my parents or myself, but rather on the place itself. Flandre's parents died, and Flandre herself turned into that thing you saw in the basement.

Excuse me? Yes, I said "that thing". Flandre is currently neither a vampire nor a human, therefore she is unclassified. Sue me if you want, but if you have a better word, speak.

Ha. Thought so. Pretentious worm.

Anyway, Flandre's parents are dead, the domestics are running away one more time, and guess who showed up? Meiling and Patchouli, barging in like Don Quichotte, yelling and shrieking. I could write a book about how I felt when I recognized them, but I'll keep it short.

So, Patchouli finds us in the basement, Flandre and I, she's very scared and starts throwing fireballs are us, so I have to slap some sense in her face, and then Meiling arrived, and Flandre pounces her, thinking she was a monster or something, and we're all fighting like idiots until I see Meiling's face.

I said "Meiling"?

She said "Remilia?"

I said "the Chinese servant?"

She said "the Little Mistress?"

And then we fall into each other's arms, while Patchouli and Flandre are trying to figure out what happens.

That's all. That's the story. Now go away. And never come back.


	6. Ending

Sitting on a stone, the man looked at his notes. The hastily scribbled pages of history wouldn't make sense for anyone else, but it did for Gideon, as he wasn't reading, but remembering what he heard as he was scribbling. In a way, his method was more efficient than writing, and had the advantage of making his diary impossible to decode.

"What a load of bollocks," groaned the man, meditating on that Madam Remilia's arrogance. But at the same time, he was forced to admit that her behaviour, as stupid as it seemed, was logical.

After all, she only wanted to protect her family, and, just as that gardener said, she had a vague definition of what a family was.

"Is it still history if I know it's a lie?" Said the man, talking to nobody in particular, as he remembering the first interview he had with the vampire. An abomination, hu? Well, Gideon knew a lot about monsters and abominations. One more or one less...

"But why the sister act?" Indeed, why such an act? Why not admit that Flandre wasn't her sister? Was Remilia so horrified by her little sister's death during that malediction that she replaced her dead little sister by Flandre? And what was that curse to begin with? Was there really a wizard to begin with, or...

"I broke that vampire's pride, and yet there are still things I ignore. You win, Remilia Scarlet. You're free to bring your secrets to your grave."

The man was still talking to himself when he stood on the rock, and threw his diary in the canyon below. Maybe it was to be destroyed. Maybe it was to be found. Maybe it was to be burned. Maybe it was to be decoded. Maybe Gideon Moran wouldn't be the only person outside of the Scarlet Devil Mansion to know the truth about the Scarlet Family.

When the diary finally touched the bottom of the canyon, the man was already out of time, using the watch the maid gave him. He had a mission, but that mission was to be postponed until all history was saved, wrote down, and understood. That way, in case everything else failed, there would be Gideon, still here, still alive, and still remembering the citizens of Gensokyo.

After all, as long as someone remembers you, you're not totally dead, right?


End file.
